Mass

The Mass is the central genre of Western sacred music: a setting of the Latin Mass Ordinary — Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei — for voices, with or without instruments. From plainchant and medieval polyphony it developed into the cyclic mass of the Renaissance, in which *Guillaume de Machaut*'s "Messe de Nostre Dame" (c. 1365) is the earliest complete setting by a single composer, and reached summits in *Josquin des Prés*, *Palestrina* and *William Byrd*. The Baroque concerted mass culminates in *Bach*'s Mass in B minor, and *Beethoven*'s "Missa solemnis" moved the genre decisively into the concert hall, where it remains alive.